need for stabilizing

[Chami]

Ok, maybe a dumb question here,

but are there different ways to stabilize your wine, and has anyone tried making wine without stabilizing (I guess leaving the wine in secondary much longer and not adding extra sulfides).

 

[AlFulchino]

by saying leaving in secondary longer i am hearing you t imply that maybe you really mean clarifying....yes if it stays in thesecondary or aging vessel longer, it will clarify..but if you were trying to imply by stabizing to mean no need for p sorbate of k meta that is another story to discuss...if there is no residual sugar you stand a chance to not need p sorbate...esp if to be drank in less than a yr....and for k meta, it also better be drunk on the quick side......or you increase the odds for spoilage...so in short...longer time in a secondary or aging vessel, only guarantees one thing....particles will drop out and get yoru wine clear...but it does NOT stabilize

 

[wyntheef]

I may be interpreting wrongly, but it sounds as though you may not like the idea of sulfites in your wine. If so, be careful.
I know a person, and got my initial concepts of winemaking from him, who does not use sulfites. He makes good wine, why can't I do it? No problem.
I made vinegar.
What I'm trying to say is, this other guy had a lot (a whole lot) of experience, and I had none.
Since then (5 gallons of vinegar and a ton of angst), I have learned to use sulfites and am pleased with the way things are going.
It seems to me that 'no sulfites' is an iffy way to make wine, and at the very least, something for a more experienced wino to attempt.
Hope this helps.

 

[AlFulchino]

if you take care of your exposure to oxygen you still should be able to bottle without using a gram of sulfite and STILL expect a year under bottle w no problems at all..i have wines older than one yr w no sulfite and they never turned to vinegar...but for longer terms you have to as corks will break down

 

[Wade E]

It takes exposure to the acetobacter and lots of 02 exposure to make vinegar or the addition of "Mother of Vinegar" to do so. I really dont see what everyone is so upin arms about not using the small amounts of sulfite we use. Yes you can make wine without it vut even then there is sulfites in your wine as the act of fermentation creates sulfite. We are talking about 1/4 tsp per 6 gallons!!!!! If you plan on sweetening your wine then you need to stabilize your wine with both sulfite and sorbate or you will have exploding bottles unless you want to spend some serious money to sterile filter your wine, this requires some spendy equipment and spendy flters with .25 micron to eliminate all the yeast in the wine so that it cant ferment again.

 

[Dugger]

Ok, maybe a dumb question here,

but are there different ways to stabilize your wine, and has anyone tried making wine without stabilizing (I guess leaving the wine in secondary much longer and not adding extra sulfides).

Not sure if you mean stabilizing as in the sulphite and sorbate after fermentation or as in further additions of sulphite during bulk ageing.
I have 3 wines ( kits) in carboys now that I only added the K-Meta packet after fermentation and did not add the sorbate or the clearing agent. I want to see if the lack of sorbate will change the taste any, i.e. eliminate or reduce a slightly sweet taste I usually detect in young wine. This may or may not make a difference - time will tell.
So in answer to your question, I would say there are degrees of stabilization - I don't feel comfortable leaving out the sulphite, but I feel comfortable leaving out the sorbate, knowing the wines fermented dry. I also see no reason not to add an extra 1/4 tsp Kmeta as needed since the potential benefit far outweighs any downsides ( if any).
.. Doug

 

[St Allie]

Most of my white fruit wines finished as dry, are both unsweetened and unstabilised. I prefer very dry wines. my reds are cellared longer and so are sorbated and sulphited.

If the whites are intended to be consumed within a year.. I do not bother with sorbate, I do however add the ground up camden tablets before bottling..

I do hasten to assure you, this may not be the usual way most people handle their homemade wines. I do it my way and this works for me.

Handle your wines your own way, using common sense and good hygiene practices.

Allie

 

[Chami]

Interesting to hear your guys' takes on this. I haven't tried deviating from the kits' instructions yet, but am just curious. The sulfides in the wine is just a concern that a friend of mine brought up (he is a "little" cautious of chemicals and byproducts in his food). The fact that there is a 0.25 tsp of extra meta bi-sulfide in 6 gallons of wine doesn't really bother me, but it did raise a question in my mind, and that was. How did winemakers stabilize their wine back in the day (you know before you could get meta bisulfide tablets or powder). Anyhow, I agree with most of you in that the 0.25 tsp of meta bisulfide is such a small amount, and risking 6 gallons of wine just to experiment would be silly and expensive.

 

[Wade E]

The answer is long ago they didnt most likely and lots of wines spoiled unless they drank it before it did spoil. Way back in the day they didnt age their wines like we do now, they made it and drank it lots of times without even letting it settle out as it was afer to drink then the water back then.

 

[Malkore]

keep in mind that wine kits use less sulfites than commercial wines (and many commercial foods).

 

[St Allie]

How did winemakers stabilize their wine back in the day (you know before you could get meta bisulfide tablets or powder). .

Wines were fermented out to dry, casked and basically drunk with minimal aging.. Sweeter wines, were just fed more sugars til the yeast expired, to make a sweeter wine that way.. these were also casked in small amounts for consumption.( As glass was expensive and the province of the wealthy for quite some years, bottles were not plentiful as they are today).. wine would spoil if you left the air to get at it.. so once the cask was open.. you had to drink it.

.. I'm thinking they have made the odd sparkling one in error.. and had a few bungs blow out on them!..

Allie

 

[koda_ky]

Hi
I just read a article on stablizing wine here is the website. I hope this helps.
http://www.winemakermag.com/component/resource/article/407-its-lysozyme-time